November 23, 2013

Fun with unexpected business travel: Actually, I don’t really know the way to San Jose.

(Edit: Apparently the Android WordPress app can’t be bothered to resize images, leaving a ridiculously huge image on the front page. Those responsible have been sacked. I’ll fix it when I’m on something better than gerbil-powered hotel Wi-Fi.)

As of 4:30 yesterday, I’m pretty sure my weekend plans didn’t include anything about flying down to Silicon Valley for an unexpected debugging session to try to troubleshoot a problem with a car that is blocking a rather important test. Apparently that’s what happened though, since I’m currently on a badly delayed plane to San Jose (remember kids, you can’t spell “Southwest Airlines” without “Late”!) to try to solve a problem with about half of the usual debugging tools I normally have at my disposal and only a vague idea of what’s going on. Given the fact that the FAA has finally done away with that archaic rule about no electronic devices below 10,000 feet, I’ve actually got enough time to do some blogging on one of these relatively short flights. Given the fact that the plane is not currently plummeting to Earth in an impressive fireball of doom I’ve got to figure the risk was pretty nonexistent in the first place. This particular plane seems to be staffed by a rather snarky crew of flight attendants, which made for a rather interesting safety spiel prior to takeoff (we were warned of what to do just in case the Southwest Airlines flight turns into a Royal Caribbean cruise, and it didn’t involve any trips to the buffet unfortunately.)

Even though work has been quite hectic for the past few months , it had actually slowed down over the past few weeks, to the point that I can actually leave the office at a somewhat reasonable time most days. Of course assorted fire drills do still pop up every so often, but that’s pretty much par for the course no matter where you are. I am also now just two weeks away from the big vacation I’ve been looking forward to for six months now, and starting to get ready for that. Granted, the past year has provided more than adequate opportunities to travel (something I am grateful for, and something I suspect I will not always have the chance to do,) but for years now I’ve been in sort of a limbo where as I jumped from contact to contact at Microsoft and elsewhere, I always found myself in one of two situations: Plenty of money and to many obligations to go anywhere, or plenty of time, but no money to spend on traveling.

It has only been within the last couple of years that I have been able to manage both at the same time, and I’m taking advantage of the situation while I can. I also consider myself fortunate to have good friends to travel with, one of whom will be joining me on the upcoming trip. With Thanksgiving coming up next week I will save most of that for the annual “Going Around the Table”post, but even if things aren’t quite perfect for me right now ( and aren’t likely to be perfect anytime soon) I do still have to consider myself fortunate for the opportunities I have right now, and good people to share them with.

In the meantime, I might as well sit back and enjoy the flight, and hope I know what I’m doing well enough to do some good here. At least I can’t say I lead a boring life these days, right?